Since the closure of Chifa, Jose Garces’ Chinese-Peruvian hybrid, one had only a few choices in the area (Collingswood's El Sitio, for one) to taste the flavors of Peru.

Now, Philly’s new voice of Peru is actually an established one: Miguel Toro and his family opened the first El Balconcito, a restaurant with two locations in Northeast Philly, in 2005. Rene Arroyo, Toro’s stepfather, is the chef, and Toro has been working in the restaurant since he was 15, first in the kitchen and then as a server and bartender. The menu at both locations of El Balconcito encompasses the culinary traditions of both Peru and Portugal, but at Vista Peru, their new, downtown restaurant, they wanted to open what Toro describes as “the first authentic Peruvian restaurant in Philadelphia.”

“I knew that there wasn’t anything similar or close to a Peruvian restaurant in the heart of Center City,” he explains, “my family was very happy with (Balconcito) it kept us busy, (but) I thought it was time to move on to the next level, and in order to do that I needed to prepare.”

Toro enrolled in 10,000 Small Businesses, a Goldman Sachs entrepreneurship program, which helped him to write a business plan and articulate the concept of the new restaurant.

“I see myself as an ambassador of Peru. I want to show people Peru not only through the food … but also the cocktails, the art, the music. I want them to have a whole experience.”

He found a home for Vista Peru in the two-story Second Street space that formerly housed Serrano and the Tin Angel. While both of the space’s previous occupants relied on a dark, gritty charm typical to some Old City destinations, Toro sought a different feel for Vista Peru.

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The interior of Vista Peru in Philadelphia. The space was formerly occupied for years by Serrano's and Tin Angel.(Photo: Joe Lamberti/Courier Post)

The brick of the first floor dining area sports a coat of white paint, creating brightness. Panels of colorful Inca textiles and masks directly invoke visuals of Peru, as does the gold-embossed wallpaper with designs inspired by Peru’s UNESCO-recognized geoglyphs, the Nazca lines. An undulating pattern, meant to represent the Andes mountains, in the ceiling draws the eye skyward, and the black and gold bar gleams.

The design, by Tantillo Architecture, is impressive. It creates a space that feels modern, yet specific, reflective of a place and a culture. It’s a smart use of the narrow space, a sleek place perfectly suited to sipping a cocktail.

Thus, I can understand why, when our party arrived for a Friday night reservation, the room was packed. We stood at the host stand for long moments before someone arrived to greet us, eventually, unfortunately, ushering us to a table upstairs.

While the downstairs feels sleek yet lush, my impression of the second floor was very different. In place of the the weavings embellishing the walls, here is a panoramic photo of Machu Piccu. It’s nice to look at, but lacks warmth. The lights are bright, reflecting off of the hard, plasticine surfaces. The space feels clean but cold, a utilitarian overflow that one likely wouldn’t choose unless the downstairs were full.

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The exterior of Vista Peru in Old City Philadelphia.(Photo: Joe Lamberti/Courier Post)

It became clear, as we waited for our first round of drinks, that an entrance to the kitchen stairs must be at the rear of this room, too. Servers and food runners jockeyed against one another, as though the dining room were a corridor that happened to have tables in it, busy in the crush of Friday night service. I could feel their footfalls on the floor through the legs of my chair, and also ambient stress of a restaurant running at the edge of its capacity. I hoped a few sips of a cocktail would help me shake off my anxiety, that of a former server who can relate only too well.

Vista Peru bills itself as a pisco bar, offering a selection of cocktails based on this distinctive distilled spirit made from grape juice. There are three types of pisco, each with different characteristics, but don’t expect to learn about them at Vista Peru, because the term pisco bar in this usage doesn’t mean the same thing as, say, the term whiskey bar. For one thing, Vista Peru stocks only a few piscos and almost all of Vista Peru’s cocktails are made with the same one: La Caravedo Quebranta.

Unfortunately, this means that if you’re a neat spirits drinker, not a cocktail person, there’s less for you at Vista Peru. Our server seemed confused when one member of our party asked to see pisco list, which doesn’t seem to exist, then advising against an order of pisco neat, without offering explanation.

Not one to rock the boat, I order a Pisco Sour made with passion fruit-infused La Caravedo pisco. The benchmark classic, a Pisco Sour is the essential Peruvian cocktail; pisco shaken with fresh lime juice, sugar and egg white. It arrives, a frothy concoction in a martini glass that is refreshing, tart and creamy without being rich. With it, our server delivers a little plate of warm cancha, toasted corn kernels, that are the perfect foil to a slightly sweet cocktail — salty, starchy, crunchy and oily.

Pennsylvania is partially to blame for Vista Peru’s pisco limitations, as the restaurant is only able to source a very limited selection of the spirit through the state, a selection which Toro has personally worked to diversify. Even with this limited palette to work from, Vista Peru is working hard to offer a robust menu, creating variations on the pisco offerings by making a wide array of house infusions using purple corn, pineapple, passion fruit, coffee, coconut, berries, raisins and muña, an herb similar to mint.

Unfortunately, even a well-made drink can’t smooth over the awkwardness of the meal itself.

A plate of Lomo Saltado lands in front of us only a few moments after our first round of drinks does. This dish, a stir-fry of steak with tomato, onions and french fries, served with rice, reflects the cultural influence of Chinese immigrants on Peruvian cuisine, employing both potato and rice, essential starches of both cultures cuisines, itself an indispensable dish in Peru’s culinary canon.

Even though we had hoped to have it as an entree, we eventually tuck in. We’re more than halfway through it before our server checks in. Pointing at the plate, he looks at the food, not at us, saying, slowly, “That’s not yours.” He quickly puts together that this entree was meant for the table next to us, an explanation as to why it arrived so quickly.

If that were the only issue, it would have been a service hiccup easy for me to forgive, but the plate itself was underwhelming, the fries (which I later learn come to the restaurant frozen) are mealy and lukewarm, and the flavor of the steak was one-note salty as though its only seasoning were soy sauce. And the dishes that followed it were little better.

Causa Rellena is another Peruvian favorite, a stack of mashed potato flavored with aji amarillo, a type of spicy yellow chili pepper, stuffed with filling. I’m underwhelmed by Vista Peru’s version stuffed with crab salad. The potato is served so cold that it is leaden and crumbly, desperate for a sauce, making impossible to perceive any sweetness from the crab claw meat inside. An overripe fan of avocado is served alongside. My disappointment in this dish is heightened a few days later when I see a polished, PR-ready image of it on Vista Peru’s Instagram feed, an elegant, colorful stack, looking wildly different from the dish I had experienced.

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Picante de Mariscos dish, a Peruvian stir-fry, is on the menu at Vista Peru in Philadelphia.(Photo: Joe Lamberti/Courier Post)

The Ceviche Mixto is an improvement, a generous plate of shrimp, baby octopus, calamari and chunks of sole and what appears to be an equal quantity of red onion, all marinated in lime juice.There’s no discernible heat even though we opt for medium when our server asks what spice level we would like it at, and the quantity of onion is borderline overwhelming. Still, I appreciate that Vista Peru presents its ceviche in a distinctively traditional way.

“We try to keep it very Peruvian,” Toro explains, “we want people to feel as if they were in Peru.”

Thus, the ceviche is served with a slab of cooked sweet potato and a few kernels of cool, sweet corn, each meant to offer sweet punctuation for the heat of the ceviche itself, had it been spicy.

At this point, we’re a rogue entree and two appetizers in to our meal, and I hope that our second entree will provide a high note.

Picante de Mariscos is a stir-fry of mixed seafood in what is listed on the menu as a spicy cream sauce. From this dish, I expect a texture similar to that one might encounter in a penne alla vodka, but instead of tomato, acidity and deep, toasty color from the aji rocoto, red chili and also unctuous silkiness from cream. What we experience at Vista Peru is, instead a plate of what appears to be the same seafood medley used in the ceviche in a thin, orange sauce without a hint of richness. The seafood is cooked until squeaky, and the sauce pools on the plate, lacking the texture to cling to the fish itself. Toro explains to me later that their version uses no cream, instead thickening the sauce with cornstarch. But why then include cream in the description on the menu?

In a more casual setting, I think my response to the same dishes would feel more generous. Nothing is terrible, but within the context of the place, at these prices, and with truly inattentive service, Vista Peru feels disappointing. As one of my guests puts it, “It just doesn’t feel ready for prime time.”

So much thought has gone into the design of the space, that the food and the dining experience overall really should keep pace.

I hope that Toro, Aroyo, and the team at Vista Peru can dial in the details to polish their presentation of Peruvian flavors.

If they can, I’m confident that they’ll find an audience ready for more pisco, ready to see more out of Vista Peru.

Emily Teel reviews Philadelphia and New Jersey restaurants for the Courier-Post. An alumna of Bryn Mawr College, she completed a Master of Arts at in Food Culture & Communications at University of Gastronomic Sciences in Parma, Italy. A former restaurant worker, she is happy to celebrate the best of what any eatery has to offer. Read more of her work at emilyteel.com and send questions and suggestions to Emily.L.Teel@gmail.com

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A lot of research and care was put into the decor of Vista Peru.(Photo: Joe Lamberti/Courier Post)

Dining review

Dining review

Vista Peru, 20 S. 2nd St., Philadelphia

Call (215) 398-5046 or vistaperuphilly.com

Food: ★★

Atmosphere: ★★★

Service::★★

Value: ★★

Overall: ★★

Cuisine: Peruvian

Hours: Open Daily 11 a.m.-2 a.m.

Recommended Items: Pisco Sour, Cebice Mixto

Price Range: $7-30

Late Night: Yes

Brunch: No

BYOB: No

Outdoor Dining: No

Live Entertainment: Coming soon

Wheelchair Accessible: Yes

Type of Parking: Street

What the stars mean: Five is excellent; four is very good; three is good; two is fair and one is poor.